As you know, I LOVE SCIENCE. Especially when science explains some of my own mystifying behavior or tells me how to, step by step, do something to make my life better. Also, however, science occasionally gives me some information which provides me with hope for my own future.
I present unto you this lovely graph:
Finally, some incredible and definite benefit to being in my 40s. This is a study done by behavioral economist Andrew Oswald on life satisfaction according to age. He tested half a million people in 72 countries. He and colleagues even demonstrated that chimpanzees and orangutans experience similar "mid-life malaise." Although there might be something depressing in the news that I am currently in the nadir of life satisfaction, LOOK AT THAT UPWARD CURVE, dear reader!!! I am headed into a continual rise in life satisfaction. YES!
I mean, I guess I'm sort of sad that my kids are going to head downhill in their teenage years and beyond, but perhaps it all serves a biological/evolutionary purpose.
It is unusual for me to post two days in a row, but I had to share this because - ROCK ON for aging!!!
Also, I have to share an interesting insight that I had this morning. So, after all of my gratitude about beautiful moments yesterday, some force from the universe decided that this needed to be evened out by sending me to the ER last night (3am-6am) with a sick girl (and her sleepy and annoyed brother). Breathing problems freak me out, and I was terrified by her wheezing and coughing and dry heaving all of the sudden at 2:30am. So, off we went. I thought it might be croup, but, you know, it could have been something more horrible....Turns out that it was croup (mother's intuition - it's totally a thing - I was sure that she had a UTI last Wednesday when we went to the doctor. The doctor was skeptical. I turned out to be right.). But, we were there for an endless 3 hours and my son was crying inconsolably because he couldn't sleep (single parent of twins: when one family member goes to the ER, everyone goes to the ER). We got back home in time for me to hand the childcare over to my good friend/neighbor (Prince among men. Seriously.) and head back out the door to my church job. It was a LOOOOOONNNNGGG morning. So here's where the insight is. Between services, I was feeling stressed because I wasn't with my daughter and went to get her prescriptions filled and on the way back to church went to Dunkin Donuts and ordered a Croissant Donut. I mean, it's a croissant and a donut, you guys. But, the thought I had was that I was going to eat this as a reward for surviving the stress that I was currently and recently under. I had that conscious thought. Normally, I would just eat it and feel shame and eat more stuff because of the shame and just try to not think about it. But, I have decided that it is unsustainable for me to think that I will be able to achieve a state of perfection where I will NEVER view eating as a reward. I am, however, going to be conscious about it, if I can. I am going to say to myself, "Here I go. I am going to eat this as a reward." And, then, when I am not under that stress, I am going to eat for other reasons. More healthy reasons.
OK, we'll see how this works out for me. I am beginning to try and stockpile some snacks for taking care of hunger when it strikes. I'm not a real carrots and celery fan. I am actually trying to back off the dairy these days (result of the cleanse), so cheese doesn't feel like a good choice. But here's something that inspired me this evening:
I had another moment with my daughter tonight, returning to the theme of aging. She said, as I was rubbing her back and trying to get her to go to sleep, "Mommy, I hope you and I can go to heaven at the same time." Awwww. I told her that I hoped that I would go first, but if not, I thought her idea was the next best thing. Sigh. Sweet girl. I hope, hope, hope that my plan works out, and that I go out on the apex of life satisfaction. Is that too much to ask? :)
Ah well, enough of the serious. Let's all have a great week, dear reader!
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment